Chipping Away

Distance: 1 mile
Time: 8:34
Location: Powhatan Road

*Note - This run occurred Monday, May 2nd.

This was the beginning of a hectic week. Not only is track season winding down (and thus we're busy preparing for the postseason), but my wife and I are also house hunting, and I've been having to rush home after work to meet with our Realtor. After looking at a promising house, and getting a bite to eat with my mom, I laced up to run a mile on my standard (Powhatan) route. Last week was my first week of my 2011 training, and it was kind of a mixed bag. My first two runs were just half miles, and they were slow. But when I finally decided to run a full mile I was surprised to see my time right up there with my better times of 2010. It gave me hope.

So today I set out on a mile run, this time on my neighborhood street. This was a route I'd run countless times last year. I ran my slowest time on it (a 9:36 in May of 2010) and one of my fastest times (a 7:57 in September of 2010). I didn't want to wait any longer to get some real running in, so I went for it. And tonight I felt pretty good. I ended up with an 8:34, better than last week, and actually better than most of my times on this route last year! I pushed it a bit harder tonight, doing my best to run on the balls of my feet for as long as I could. I'm still not feeling great on these runs, but I know that I won't be needing to climb the same mountain I had to last year when I began running after years of inactivity. Five months off hurt me, but not devastatingly. And of course my lighter weight is helping a great deal.